Earlier in the summer, musical sensations Mariah Carey and Miguel released a collaboration entitled “#Beautiful.” The song had some chart success and created a solid level of buzz for the long-time diva. However, it’s interesting to consider that multiracial backgrounds of the entertainers: Miguel, for example, has a Mexican father and African-American mother. Mariah, on the other hand, was born to an Irish American mother and Afro-Venezuelan father. Mariah’s racial past has been well-documented in terms of how it’s affected her career. For me, I’ve always been fascinated by the “melting pot” that is America due to our nation’s historical struggle with race that is both laudable and lamentable and continues to haunt our shores to this day. So, when a friend forwarded along a map of our country based on “racial dots,” I knew I had to write a post about it.
“Demographic researcher Dustin Cable’s Racial Dot Map is staggering both…

Last week, I finally returned to blogging after half of year of internet slumber. To be truthful, I haven’t lost track of the arguments on all sides, I simply choose to take a step back from the daily vitriol. Nonetheless, I’m a bit disheartened by the increasingly narrow focus on the interests of adults- either…

[Click here to read: Teach For America Isn't Perfect, but it Has Been a Boost to Education] I haven’t posted here in over four months, but I wanted to share some thoughts from all the TFA hoopla as of late. There are some great articles out there providing perspective on the escalating debate over whether…

I recently read Gary Rubinstein’s post entitled: “The Silence of the (Sacrificial) Lambs” and immediately thought back to the classic Paula Cole hit, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” In the past month, his post has generated nearly 100 comments, many from defensive or offended corps members; some of the more insightful comments come from…

Disclaimer: this has NOTHING to do with education. Unless you make the case that Blitzen would have received due justice had he been represented by the Reindeer’s Union (led by Reinde R. Wintergarden). It’s the story of Blitzen, Santa’s head reindeer. One day at the North Pole, Blitzen decides that he’s had enough of the…

Some sticky situations arose this week and I’m not talking about waffle syrup. If you are wondering why we still have violence and education crises in modern day America, look no further than the grown folks making decisions and mouthing platitudes from their soapboxes. We see this pseudo-argumentation about the fiscal cliff (here and here),…

Due in part to the maddening flurry of education reform related articles in the past two month, I had essentially sworn off blogging. While in the groove of seeing real change happening on the ground every day in my work with City Year, I felt increasingly removed from the debate between older folk being played…

Please read the following article about the fires of racial tensions being rekindled due to a lack of thoughtfulness and financial equality around revised public transit plans. Aren’t we in 2012? Why do forced relocation, crowding out, and disregard for minority, low-income communities remain issues in this enlightened age? Yet, pundits question why poverty still exists?…

There’s a well-known saying that goes like this: “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.” I noticed last night that citizens in Chicago voted to have an elected school board instead of one appointed by the mayor. While this referendum didn’t actually change city law, the 86% of votes in…

Not much to say here. Mississippi once again makes a fool of itself. After President Obama was reelected, a group of students at Mississippi’s largest university, “Ole Miss” decided to protest on campus employing the use of numerous racial slurs best left in the 60s. It’s worth noting that the University of Mississippi has an…